THIS INVENTION concerns a tool for breaking reinforced glass or other barrier screen material to enable personnel to escape in an emergency, for example, from a high rise building or from a vehicle or other enclosure.
Systems to permit escape from a fire in a high rise building may comprise a controlled descent device enabling personnel to pass from one floor to another outside of the building. This would be prevented by the inability to break the window glass on both floors, such glass usually being of the toughened kind.
It is known, for example, in some vehicles, to provide a hammer which is capable of breaking reinforced or laminated glass to enable the occupants to escape in the event of an accident or fire and where the doors cannot be opened. Such hammers usually consist of a head with a pointed striking tip, and a handle to grip the hammer. In many examples the hammer is constructed predominantly of plastics but with a metal head at one end. The mass of such a tool is likely to be insufficient to break the glass unless a very forceful blow is used. Also, such tools conventionally do not include additional features which might be required, for example, to prise open a door or to remove broken glass.